An 'Amazon for secondhand,' a Nikola recall, and 'buying the dip' backfires

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

The S&P 500 just sank today to the lowest since December 2020. It is proving to be the worst year for buying the stock-market dip since the 1930s.

The Biden administration and TikTok have drafted a preliminary agreement to resolve national security concerns posed by the Chinese-owned video app but face hurdles over the terms, as the platform negotiates to keep operating in the United States without major changes to its ownership structure, the New York Times reports.

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, who faces South Korean charges over a $60 billion cryptocurrency wipeout, denied he’s in hiding after authorities said Interpol had issued a red notice for his arrest. Kwon took to Twitter today to say that he’s “making zero effort to hide,” adding “I go on walks and malls.” Prosecutors in Seoul earlier said Interpol had requested law enforcement worldwide to locate and arrest the 31-year-old. Bloomberg has more here.

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Ceribell, an eight-year-old startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that makes a headset that can help health professionals monitor a patient's brain activity, raised an additional $50 million, increasing the Series C round total to $103 million. Ally Bridge Group was the lead for this extension. The company has raised a total of $171 million. Fierce Biotech has more here.

Not So Dark, a three-year-old Paris startup that has launched digital food delivery brands that it sells in various food delivery apps, raised an $80 million Series B round co-led by Kharis Capital and Verlinvest, with additional participation from Convivialité Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Chiru Labs, a Los Angeles startup that created an NFT collection called Azuki that features sideways-facing anime characters pictured in varying moods and adorned with accessories like headwear and weapons, is reportedly looking to raise a $30 million Series A. The Block has more here.

Disperse, a seven-year-old London startup that has built an AI-powered platform to help project managers of construction sites track their work by capturing data like photos, drawings, plans, construction schedules, raised a $16 million round led by 2150, with Northzone and Kindred Capital also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $32.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

PlanetWatchers, a six-year-old London startup that provides analytics for the crop insurance industry, raised an $11 million Series A round co-led by Seraphim Investment Trust and Creative Ventures, with Trendlines Agrifood Fund, BIG Capital, and Ridgeline Partners also contributing to the deal. Tech Startups has more here.

Solfácil, a four-year-old São Paulo startup that sells solar equipment and finances loans to consumers, raised a $30 million extension to its Series C round, increasing the total size of the round to $130 million. Fifth Wall Climate led the extension financing. The company has raised a total of $285.3 million. Bloomberg Linea has more here.

TAU Systems, a one-year-old Austin startup that aims to provide engineers and biotech professionals with access to high-energy particle accelerators, raised a $15 million round from Team Global. More here.

Vendease, a two-year-old Lagos, Nigeria, startup that buys discounted food products in bulk, stores them, then makes deliveries to restaurants via third-party logistics partners, raised a $20 million Series A and $10 million in debt. TLcom Capital and Partech Africa were the co-leads. The company has raised a total of $33.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Well-Link Technologies, a three-old, China-based cloud-rendering company (it helps its clients create cloud-based versions of their products, like video games), has raised $40 million in extended Series B funding led by Temasek. Earlier shareholders Future Capital and CDH Venture and Growth Capital also joined the round. CNBC has more here.

Checkmate, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup whose mobile app and web extension aims to make it easier for shoppers to discover brands, apply savings, manage gift cards, and track orders post-purchase, raised a $5 million seed round led by Fuel Capital. PYMNTS has more here.

Gently, a 19-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that calls itself an “Amazon for secondhand,” (it enables users to shop across numerous consignment sites, theoretically helping them find a specific item faster), has raised $2 million in pre-seed money. The round included more than 20 investors, including Jason Calacanis’s Launch, Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer, and Dorm Room Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Leuko, an eight-year-old Boston startup that is working on a method to enable at-home, non-invasive white blood cell monitoring, raised a $5 million Series A. Investors in the round included HTH VC, Good Growth Capital, IAG Capital Partners, and Nina Capital. The company has raised a total of $7.4 million. More here.

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The Berlin-based, seed-stage venture firm Point Nine has closed its sixth fund with €180 million in capital commitments. The firm says the money will be used to continue to back B2B marketplaces and B2B SaaS startups. It adds that it will use the same strategy it has employed for years, which is to invest between €500,000 and €5 million into mostly European startups, with roughly a quarter of its bets flowing to startups elsewhere, including the U.S. and Canada. Sifted has more here.

Trind VC, a seed-stage venture fund based in Tallinn, Estonia with team members in Helsinki and Munich, has announced closing of its €55 million second fund. The firm says it aims to invest into 30 to 40 startups with the capital over a four-year (active) investment period. The fund is backed by institutional investors such as European Investment Fund, Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment), LHV Pension Funds, and Swedbank Investment Funds. Tech.eu has more here.

Vertex Ventures US today announced that it has raised its third and largest fund with $200 million in capital to lead or co-lead seed and Series A investments in SaaS and infrastructure software startups. Initial investments range from $500,000 to $10 million. More here.

FTX US, the digital-asset exchange founded by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, won the auction for the assets of bankrupt crypto brokerage Voyager Digital. The agreement is valued at about $1.4 billion, comprising an “additional consideration” worth about $111 million and the $1.3 billion market value of all the cryptocurrency at the bankrupt platform, according to a statement from Voyager Digital today. Bloomberg has more here.

Investors are reportedly rushing to snap up shares in Porsche, with the German sports car maker on course to deliver one of Europe’s biggest IPOs this Wednesday. The Financial Times has more here.

Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company looking to take Trump Media and Technology Group public, has changed its listed address to a UPS Store in Miami, reports CNBC. The change from a Miami office building to a UPS address came with DWAC’s regulatory filing on Friday disclosing that investors have recalled $138.5 million from the $1 billion in funds raised to fund Trump Media after the merger. One investor tells CNBC that the SPAC's many legal obstacles was one contributing factor; another factor, said this person, is the lack of momentum enjoyed by Trump Media’s Truth Social app. More here.

Elon Musk was texting with Larry Ellison all night and "into the early morning hours" before he said his $44 billion agreement to purchase Twitter was "temporarily on hold." Business Insider has more here.

Apartment rents are falling from record highs across the U.S. for the first time in nearly two years, according to a report from property data company CoStar Group. The WSJ notes that the declines are modest compared with the 23%(!) overall increase in rent since August 2020, according to Realtor.com, and there is no guarantee that rents won’t move up again.

Sales in the plant-based meat category are declining, according to data from Information Resources Inc., or IRI. That’s due to possible saturation of the US market as new brands hit the shelves, suggests Bloomberg. More here.

Now you can buy tube socks in the metaverse.

TikTok is introducing a dislike button for comments.

Nikola is recalling all 93 battery-electric Nikola Tre Class 8 trucks it has built to date because improper installation of the shoulder anchorage assembly of the seat belts could reduce protection in a crash. FreightWaves has more here.

Who's really using up the water in the American West?

The end of the rookie dinner?

Six-figure artworks, by a fifth grader.

World champion Magnus Carlsen today broke his silence on the scandal that has shaken the chess world, explicitly accusing 19-year-old American grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann of cheating.

A new turntable that can pair with an Sonos speaker.

What $2 million buys house hunters in Miami, New York and Chicago.

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